 "Bhool Chuk Maaf movie review: Rajkummar Rao, Wamiqa Gabbi give a decent performance in a film that picks up only in the second half")
Language: Hindi
Director: Karan Sharma
Cast: Rajkummar Rao, Wamiqa Gabbi, Raghubir Yadav, Sanjay Mishra, Seema Pahwa, Zakir Hussain, Anubha Fatehpuria, Ishtiyak Khan
Set in Varanasi, Ranjan (Rajkummar Rao), a young man without a job, is madly in love with Titli (Wamiqa Gabbi). Small-town romances from the Hindi heartland have always been a favourite for all. But haven’t we seen enough of small-town romances? But how is it going to be different from previous films in a similar setup is a tough question.
_Bhool Chuk Maaf_ starts when this young couple decides to elope but fails in the process because Titli starts missing her father. The parents from both sides meet and decide the best way to stop the badnami (bad name) of the family is to get them married off as early as possible. But Ranjan doesn’t have a job. The demand from Titli’s family is that Ranjan must get a government job before getting married and he is given two months’ time. He does get a government job, but not in an honest way and for this a deserving candidate’s name gets cancelled from the list. Rajkummar Rao and Wamiqa Gabbi’s Bhool Chuk Maaf is indeed a comedy of errors where the hero is stuck in a strange time loop twist__.__
Bhool Chuk Maaf’s actual ambitious turn starts just a few minutes before the interval and you can very easily miss the first half. It’s only in the second half that the pace picks up and gets slightly exciting. Both Rajkummar Rao and Wamiqa are great craftsmen and tries to pull along a boring script. There are some hilarious moments, but most are like when someone is ticking you hard to make you laugh. And lot of the dialogues are pretty cliched.
The problem with this movie is that when you are trying to address a serious issue with comedy, chances are that you end up trivializing the whole narrative. Most importantly, it becomes difficult to accept a film as an audience that doesn’t treat a serious theme with due respect.
There are several crucial conversations like unemployment in India, obsession with government jobs and most importantly how people bribe touts to get a government job and a deserving candidate gets knocked off from the list. But none of these issues were handled with care and sensitivity, rather it was all overshadowed with hideous lehengans, sherwanis, wedding decorations and plenty of laughter.
The movie totally lacked genuine commitment towards the above crucial conversations. Had that been the focus instead of the silly romance, the film would have turned out to be far better. The script leaves the unemployment issue and fraud that goes behind getting a government job and the solution for it unclear. Rajkummar Rao and Wamiqa Gabbi film fail to save a faulty script. As I hate to run down the efforts of any filmmaker, the won’t say that the movie is a complete washout, there are few moments too that can kindle some laughs.
Rating: 2 out of 5
WATCH the trailer of Bhool Chuk Maaf here:
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